ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the impact of China's renaissance on Japan's post-war state identity, and the implications for how the East Asian order may evolve. The post-Cold War era began for Japan with three significant events that each marked an end to a particular episode in Japan's post-war 'miracle' story of recovering from total defeat in the war to become Asia's leading economic power. The three events are: the death of Emperor Showa in 1989, the Gulf War in 1991, and, the bursting of the economic bubble in the early 1990s. The Chinese initiative to set up the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in January 2016, the first undertaking of this kind in the region since the Asian Development Bank (ADB) was established in 1966 under the aegis of Japan. The Hague it appeared at first that the rule of law and international norms had prevailed as the court's ruling overwhelmingly favoured the Philippines and dismissed China's claims.
